This 1987 photo taken during the Southern California Military Academy’s final year in existence, depicts cadets belonging to the school’s marching band standing at attention on campus while receiving an award. Photo courtesy of former cadet Luis Sanchez via The Cadets of Southern California Military Academy group page on Facebook.

1:01pm | Kirk Schenewark is on a twofold mission. He aims both to set right a wrong done years ago when what would have been a valued piece of local history was destroyed and to pay tribute to the thousands of students and faculty who attended and served at a military school on Signal Hill over the course of more than 60 years. The Long Beach businessman graduated from Southern California Military Academy in 1985, and two years later, due to reported financial troubles, the all-male, K-9 boarding school on Cherry Avenue near 20th Street (the site of Alvarado Elementary School) was demolished. 

Dug up and scrapped along with the academy was a concrete senior walk that snaked around the school. The walk contained medals, awards and signatures etched by graduating classes dating back to before World War II. On some of the older stones, which had become faded and turned a yellowish-brown like an aging newspaper, one could read the thoughts of young men about to become soldiers heading off to fight for their country. 
 
Fight-on, don’t-tread-on-me type slogans and other gung-ho statements could be found interspersed with anti-Nazi sentiments on the concrete slabs from the early 1940s. Brave remarks from those heading off to the Korean and Vietnam wars could be read on portions of slightly newer concrete. The academy opened in 1924, and it’s demolition in 1987 with little effort to salvage it as a historical site was perplexing. But even more confounding, those involved with SCMA say, was the destruction of that historic senior walk, which was done with little explanation by the city of Signal Hill or those who ran the school as to why no attempt was made to the save the walk for historical purposes.

Now Schenewark, who owns Kirk’s Stump Grinding in Long Beach, is working to reestablish a little of that history.  He’s collecting donations to erect a tree and a bronze plaque later this month during a private ceremony for those associated with SCMA so people will know about the students, faculty, staff and that lost history. Schenewark has most of the pieces in place, though he’s still working to secure more funding for the project.  “The thought started before the reunion last year and grew into reality these last few months,” said the 40-year-old. 

With the help of some other former SCMA students, Schenewark organized a reunion last year at Signal Hill Park on Cherry next to the site of the former school. Last year’s reunion drew more than 100 SCMA alumni, with some former cadets in attendance who went to the academy as far back as the 1940s, as well as those who were there in its final year in 1987. 
 One of his first stops in his efforts to erect a monument was the Long Beach Unified School District. 

“The Long Beach Unified School District has granted us an approximate 20-by-20-foot section in the southeast corner of Alvarado Elementary School,” said Schenewark. “The principal, Brett Geithman, has been very receptive, as has the LBUSD. After careful consideration from a LBUSD-approved tree list, I chose the Golden Rain for its gold colors and it being one of our academy’s colors.”   The bronze plaque will be similar to the artistic rendering at right and will rest atop a concrete pedestal, with construction planned in the coming days. 

 “The plaque is in memory and honor of our academy and its alumni and staff who served in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, Iraq and Afghanistan, and the civilian community,” Schenewark said. “This plaque is important to the history of the Southern California Military Academy and to the history of Signal Hill.”  A handful of SCMA staff and faculty have already confirmed their attendance at the May 21 Armed Forces Day ceremony, which is open to SCMA students, faculty, staff and others involved with the school and the plaque project. Also expected to attend is Col. Jack Aden, a former teacher and past commandant of the academy who is also a veteran of World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars. For more information or to make a donation, e-mail Schenewark at [email protected]. Editor’s note: Don Jergler is a former SCMA cadet. He attended the school for six years, graduating in 1983.
 A section of the senior walk featuring messages, slogans and the names of former graduates at Southern California Military Academy that was in 1987 dug up and discarded, effectively destroying a large chunk of personalized local history. Photo courtesy of The Cadets of Southern California Military Academy group page on Facebook.